Y&R: TV Guide Confirms JG is out and his replacement!

[SFK]

As a couple of posters have tried to remind us, let's not forget that the name Paul Rauch has not always been synonymous with fog lamps, Casio keyboards, and histrionics. Back in the day, his production values for AW got all of the praise we've come to associate with Y&R. Rauch was doing the dim, moody thing too. Another poster said Y&R was Masterpiece Theatre, I'd say AW was Masterpiece Theatre (thanks to Harding Lemay). Even under Bell's pen, Conboy was way too Hollywood to give Y&R that distinction. Conboy is pretty people, glitz... after all, he was friends with Liberace, plus he wanted to do a soap called Casino. Can you imagine what that would have looked like!? Ahh, the '80s... don't get me wrong, I love that stuff, but I guess what I'm getting at is that any great acting that's come out of a Conboy show has probably been more of a happy accident than a given. To me, Conboy seems less fit as an EP and better suited as a powerful creative consultant (okay, maybe co-EP). But back to Rauch...

As others have said, perhaps it was Lemay's wonderful writing for trained, capable actors that kept Rauch tethered to reality. Let's just hope that Rauch will remember and appreciate that '70s aesthetic he had going on and will push further in that direction (within reason). I mean if he goes DIMMER, MOODIER, LUSHER, we'll end up in Plato's Retreat. But his wife (ex-wife? I'm not up to date) is a playwright, a friend of mine was in one her plays. I know he and Lemay both had a great appreciation for good actors.

Another actor friend of mine worked under Rauch himself and found him rather intimidating. From my friend's description, Rauch sounds like a pithy Godfather. His words are few yet powerful, and at times, there are long scary silences. Now some people get off on working in such an enviornment, others (like me) do not. But what I like about that presence Paul has is my feeling that certain soap stars (the youngins especially) will have to pull up, step up their game, not get lazy with the whole "I'm a hot sh*t soap star livin' it up in L.A." thing and be true professionals on Rauch's watch. I do not in ANY way condone his emotionally abusive behavior in the past, BUT as I've grown up, I've had to swallow a tough pill in realizing that the ones we love are not always in the right. At least not "totally". I ADORE Robin Strasser and Ellen Holly for example, but even from listening to their own accounts, I can say that their infamous rows with Rauch weren't exactly one-sided. We're talking equally strong personalities going head to head.

[Mitch]

Well, we can't forget the young actors on GL, the totally forgettable actor who play Jesse Blue...TERRIBLY..and the blond kinda swishy first adult Bill Lewis. Both were under his watch and both of them never stepped up to the plate.

[MarkH]

Blond Bill Lewis ended up as Billy Abbott #2 on Y&R...and did not last.

Billy Abbott #4 will return someday....

[Gray Bunny]

As I remember reading, Paulo Benedeti (ex-Jesse Blue) wanted out of his contract after his first year but Rauch wanted him to stay. And hence we endured 3 full years of him. The first couple months in '97 were okay, but after Michelle went "blind" it went downhill very very fast. And the whole Jesse/Drew/Max/Selena story... just a bunch of filler.

[dc11786]

Culliton and Taggert penned some great moments: the Olivia-Phillip-Alan story exploded when Alan messed with the birth control and Olivia learned she was pregnant. My problem with Taggert and Culliton's early work, some of which was good (i.e. the ex-wives gathering), was Raunch's stink was still on it. I enjoyed Bill/Michelle. The problem with Gus' story was that Gus was originally introduced as Selina and Miguel's son. It wasn't a story that could work, but Taggert and Weston made it interesting. Reva's stalker was really interesting. Most of these stories though weren't introduced until AFTER Rauch left.

The ratings dropped nearly 0.6 during Paul Rauch's last year. When 2002 started, GL was getting a 3.0-3.2, but when he left in October/November, the show was averaging a 2.5/2.6. Taggert and Culliton, were only pulling in a 2.6/2.7 when they left. They got some high spikes (2.8 and 2.9), but they would also drop down to 2.5 again. Weston and Conboy dropped from March-April/May but was a rather steady 2.7 in the summer.

Out of curiousity, what makes you say Taggert was able to stand up to Rauch?

Back to Rauch, some of his casting decisions weren't bad. I loved the addition of Crystal Chappell, David Andrew MacDonald, Wesley A. Ramsay, Brittany Snow, Patti D'Arbville, Hunt Block, Paul Anthony Stewart, Bethany Lenz, and Anthony Addabo among others.

As a teen, I enjoyed the San Cristobal story and thought the location work was well done. I don't remember having a problem with the sets, but no set really stands out.

[EricMontreal22]

Really? i find them kinda too ornate thought he music can be stirkingly beautiful. my prob with Baroque opera is it's all abotu presentation--because it came from the French masques it makes sense. Still it's a bit like some Greek drama--everythign is presneted and talked about, never shown or expressed dramatically. They talk about what just happened, what's going to happen etc. Prince Igor is now alwasy presneted very revised--you're right the libretto is a mess. It's best part honestly are the Polovstian Dances--the ballet part which are often done on their own with Fokine's choreography (which created a sensation during Diaghilev's first season with in Paris--Prisians weren't used to aggressive masculine dancing in ballet at that time whatsoever). Music wise that's been Borodin's most lasting legacy too as far as I'm concered.

(I think I jsut showe dmy biase towards ballet over opera again ). I have gotten into Britten a lot lately--I downloaded a really gorgeous production of Death in venice from a gay torrent site (lol) by chance last Spring--I only really knew Turn fo the Screw (which I love) and Peter Grimes which I sang in an awful production of (just chorus) and has turne dme off it. I admit it helps that Sondheim is such a Britten fan and uses many of his techniques.

[EricMontreal22]

We really should take this private but I admit it's fun arguing/discussing with you I don't find Tchaikovsky sugary necesarily--I'm surrpised you don't like Sleeping Beauty as it was done in many ways as a tribute to his favorite Baroque composers (the ballet was comissioned as a tribute to Louis Qautorze's court, which the Tsar was obsessed with emulating--so it's actually in some ways very statelya nd devoid of obvious emotion) and his operas are wonderfully dark--prob reflecitng his pessimism. Nutcracker is sugary--and Tchaikovsky hated every moment of writing it ironically (partly because he found it so dramatically inept--he accepted the commision cuz it came with a one act opera Ioalnthe about a blind woman that he had a lot of love for--which is why Nutcracker was so short by old ballet terms--funny that Iolanthe I think ahsn't even been recorded). But he is very melodic in the grand romantic tradition I admit--but it's not liek being a fan of Blue Danube or something y main classic interest is a bit post Thaikov--neo classical liek Ravel and Satie and then the Russians Stravinsky and Prokofiev. I was gonna start a huge argument about Donna and Moroder's work especially being basially the artiest commercial disco got--it's a long way from YMCA, but why bother--I admi it's a guilty pleasure

I meant period telenovelas--which is what the Russian one was--I've only seen clips but I know Mexico and othe rplaces have had period ones before. By those standards I think it looks good--I admit by movie standards it looks liek a budget thrown together overlit version of Anna Karenina

"I mean... I don't want daytime to be primetime in terms of the structure of the episodes etc. I was just referring to the look it has. A lot of these sets are just dreadful. I mean why can't we have the Walker's kitchen (B&S) or a room like Ryan's pool house (The OC). Those sets are nothing, nothing special, bordering on bland, I just randomly and bizarrely chose those two, but daytime looks cheap and awful in comparison."

OK that makes sense. Could part of the reason be how they're taped? They still are in a very small space and sets have to be quickly taken down and raised, there's little room for permanent sets at all (BTW I was watchign some clips of the flop Titans on youtube and they had the SAME kitchen as the OC!)

E

I'd agree with all that except the lighting thing--from all I've read and most I've seen--even the B&W kinescopes, he started his bright ligths look with AW....

[EricMontreal22]

I largely agree though he has had a reputation as a, put politely, ladies' man, who has if he's liked certain yougn actresses for things besides their acting, ketp them around.

[Sylph]

A photo you've all seen probably:

[MarkH]

Looks like an undertaker, lol

[SFK]

Ellen Holly said he looked like an owl and that he had a plain, forgettable face.

[y&r_fan]

Let's just hope he doesn't take Y&R under.

[Sylph]

Nothing surpasses The Rite. 

[EricMontreal22]

I guess cuz it premiered in France and wasn't allowed ot be stgaed in Russia with its original "shocking' Nijinsky choreography (which now looks so traditional lol--100 years later of course0 I never think of Sacre as a Russian ballet but of course it is--and is brilliant. I'm ashamed to admit I first became in love with ti as a kid thanks to Fantasia--I knwo Stravinsky would hate anyone saying that. lol Stavinsky had good taste though--he has said without Tchaikovsky's ballets he woulda never wanted to become a serious composer.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Since my suggestions about a new casting director seemed to have been heard by TPTB at Y&R, I have yet another suggestion! Now that Mike Denney and Kathryn Foster are gone from DAYS, it's the perfect time for Maria, Paul, and Sally McDonald to patch up the old Y&R directing team and make everything flow nicely again. Story this flow of freelance directors, the show doesn't need such inconsistency.

Please bring back Denney, Foster, and Noel Maxam (because you know he'll be fired at DAYS soon).